live on the fruit when rice becomes scarce: when green it is used in curries, when ripe eaten alone. The Tamul name of the tree erapilla or wet jack. By the present Tappal I do myself the pleasure of sending you a specimen of the young fruit and blofsom. I send inclosed a small sprig and blofsom of a plant I found in the hills here; it smells like sage, and the leaf is of the same cớ lour. The natives use the juice of it as a medicine, giving it to children troubled with indigestion. I never saw this plant in any other part of India, but if I am sending a plant with which you are well acquainted, L trust you will readily excuse me for troubling you with an useless communication. I was astonished at finding on those hills, a great profusion of the plant called clary ;the leaves are in thick clusters on stalks four and five feet long: I am, with respect and regard, dear Sir,: your &c. Vatalaguntum in the Dindi gul Valley, June 8th 1792.J ALEXANDER MACLEOD. From Dr Anderson, to Colonel Kyd, on the climate of the Mallabar coast. DEAR SIR, I am favoured with your letter of May 26th, acknowledging the receipt of the publications I sent you, from which you have extracted what regards the fall of rain, in such a way as to draw a conclusion that agrees with experience; for betwixt the latitude of 16 and 18 degrees on the coast, there was so little rain fell during the years 1764, 1765, and 1766, that the country was desolated with famine. The same thing has now happened again in the same part of the country, insomuch, that I am credibly informed, one half of the inhabitants are no more, and the re mainder so feeble and weak, that on the report cfrice 49ming from the Malabar coast by order of the governor general, 5,000 poor people left Rajamundry, and very few of them reached the sea side, although the distance is only 50 miles ;--the pestilence occasioned by famine is better prevented than cured. I will leave it to others to declare the causes of the uncertain fall of rain at the mouths of great rivers; for Egypt is remarkable for drought; and the Gadavery spreads out into a delta at Rajamundry in the same manner as the Nile, so that its different mouths occupy fifty miles of the sea coast.--The Kistna likewise falls into the sea in the same manner, about fifty miles south of the Gadavery, and their waters are united on the intermediate flat country in the months of July and August, when they overflow their banks. It is curious that these two great rivers fhould proceed in opposite directions to join their waters in a country where perhaps from the causes you have mentioned of the participation of different monsoons, the fall of rain is most irregular and uncertain. One thing, however, is most certain, that the bulk of mankind reap little benefit from speculative observations, otherwise the waters of these. rivers would long ere this time have been converted to the purposes of agriculture; as I have heard say, for I was never at the place, that near Timericotta the Kistna is precipitated from rocks seventy feet, which is a suffi cient height to carry its waters over the Palnaud and Guntoor countries; and streams from the Gadavery might no doubt be carried over the Mustaphanagur, Ellore, and Rajamundry Circars; as even in the first week of June, when its waters are at the lowest, the channel in its bed is never lefs than a quarter of a mile in width, and three feet in depth of running water. I forbear to say any thing on the new theory of water, and the union of its principles by the medium of fiery meteors, till that doctrine is more illustrated; but as it from the course of the rivers that the land near appears Poona, and that near Simoga, are the highest, these and Adam's Peak on the island of Ceylon, are three summits nearly in the same meridian that must oppose the course of the S. W. monsoon; the vapours that follow the sun in its northern declination must be chiefly condenced into water, and attracted by them; and the east side of the peninsula being charged with a reverberating heat, will rarify the vapours and enable them to pafs on without falling in rain; and we know that the countries betwixt Masulipatam and Vizagapatam and the southern extremity of the peninsula are most subject to great drought, while the Carnatic by being interspersed with hills and extended › to greater width, has never suffered so severely. well and believe me your, &c. Fort St George, Aug. 9. 1792. Fare JAMES ANDERSON. HINTS ON DOMESTIC ECONOMY. FROM AN OLD TRADESMAN TO YOUNG ONES. Continued from Vol. xvi, p. 300. IT probably has not escaped your attention, that many men are ruined by a kind of thoughtless imprudence very much short of bad attention. But ruin, come how it may, is a very unpleasant occurrence, and when it happens to one who is young in life and business, it is attended with consequences more fatal than bankruptcy itself. One chief cause of ruin in young traders is imprudence in the management of their money. A few remarks on this subject will be a proper addition to what I advanced before on setting a proper value on money. Good fortune is very apt to intoxicate the young; and I have known instances where one year of an excellent run of business, as it is called, was absolutely the cause of ruin. Whatever success, was, perhaps, owing to your being a stranger, and to the inclination people have to go to a new shop, expecting they can purchase cheaper than at an old one; or perhaps your succefs has been attributed to your remarkable attention, industry, and address: if you lay aside that attention, you cannot expect the same consequences 'to follow. If you are noted for an industrious young man; if the people love to deal with you tecause you are polite, humble, and attentive, be assured they will leave you, if you trust your business to your servants, and commence gentleman before you have known what it is to be a tradesman. I know nothing so easy as to acquire habits of addrefs, industry, and attention; and when you have acquired a regular and methodical way of doing things, you cannot conceive how much it will afsist you, how smooth and easy your businefs will succeed, and how soon you will gain that kind of establishment in the public opinion which is the wish of every shopkeeper to attain, and which in fact he must obtain, or leave off trade. How different is the practice of many young shopkeepers? After a year or two of success, in which their profits have been considerable, they think they are entitled to launch out into expences of living with those profits. A fhopkeeper who has cleared 2001. in one year, thinks he has a right to spend that sum in any way he pleases, and away he goes to furnish his house, give entertainments, or buys a horse or a whisky. More people have galloped on horse-back or in their whisky into the gazette, than ever walked thither on foot. With the horse and the whisky come a great variety of expences, of which you have no idea. He that keeps a horse, heeps him for the purpose of riding, and riding will be provoked by every fine day, or slight invitation; you would scruple the expence of a post chaise to go a dozen miles into the country, but having a horse it is nothing as you are apt to think, and you fall into every trifling temptation to waste money and time. Your fhop becomes soon the place where you are least to be seen. This negligence will be remarked by many more than you are aware of; and when distress comes, you will be dreadfully mortified to hear the neighbours say, " aye, I expected no lefs, for he was never to be seen unless mounting or dismounting from his horse," with many other reflections, which, let me tell you, prudent men will make. But it is madnefs in him who makes 2001 by his trade, to suppose that he is worth 2001. per annum. Setting aside the consideration of those many accidents which raise or lower particular articles in your business, and setting aside even the consideration, that days of sickness and unavoidable misfortune may come, you ought to consider, that the overplus of every year, after providing decently for your family expences, ought to go in new purchases, in extending your trade, and enlarging your cus tom and connections. Many now opulent merchants of the city of London once had small fhops like yours. Their progrefs was slow, but it was sure; and they were not ambitious of being fine gentlemen, till they had realized the characters and consequences of opulent merchants. They now keep their carriages, are magistrates, or senators; their expences |